Three LTTEs to The Stars and Stripes:

[babylonsister]

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=57432

Time for Democratic leadership

Informed Republicans, as well as Democrats, are gravely concerned about John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. ("Dems post big gains in voter registration," article, Sept. 8).

McCain’s apparent lack of understanding of the gravity of the position is astonishing. To think of Palin as second in command and potentially commander in chief strikes terror in the minds and hearts of intelligent, thinking Americans.

Although Republicans acknowledge McCain’s choice as horrific, you will hear few disclaimers. We are well aware of the Republican style of campaigning. Spewing lies, spreading misinformation and inventing frivolous attacks on Democratic candidates is the Republican way of doing business, a distraction from the real issues. From Republicans you will hear no new ideas, no words of concern for struggling American families, and no inspirational thoughts to rally us, as Americans, to bring our country back to its former greatness.

That more Americans are registering to vote as Democrats is completely understandable. Americans know the time has come for intelligent, decent, caring Democratic leadership.

Laurel Samson
Ramstein Air Base, Germany

Pacific edition

Bring war to an end

Every day, all we hear the Republicans and the right-wing media like Sean Hannity say is that the "surge" worked.

Well, to my recollection, all the fighting died down due to Muqtada al-Sadr. He did not want his people to continue killing each other and did not want the Iraqi army fighting his men anymore, because he wanted to still make his way into the political arena.

As for the so-called Republican "surge," it is an insult to every soldier here, including myself as an ex-soldier and whose spouse is still a soldier. What the Republicans are actually telling everyone is that all the soldiers who have been here for so long couldn’t do the job, and we had to send in a "surge" in order to bring peace.

Soldiers who have been here fighting day-to-day battles should be very upset with the picture they are trying to paint here just in order to sustain this war.

Gov. Sarah Palin said that Sen. Barack Obama wants to forfeit the war after we see victory in our sights. But didn’t President Bush say that we won a long time ago before the insurgents came forth?

This war is very unpopular now and has surpassed being a victory. We should be focusing on getting this to an end. Otherwise we will be here another 100 years, as Sen. John McCain said.

Darrin Spell
Baghdad

A ‘welcome’ political shift

Conservatives currently fawning over John McCain, a man who apparently regards prisoner-of-war experience to be the singular qualifier in ascending to the Oval Office, have mislaid their hopes on a candidate who intends to stay a course championed by an administration he criticized in 2004 as "being out of touch with its own base."

Now, in a full-political pivot that would garner instantaneous "swift boating" were he a Democrat, McCain has allowed himself to be hobbled by the neo-con cabal and saddled with a grossly ill-prepared political albatross and self-described "hockey mom" for a running mate.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s selection appears to be based wholly on her gender, a move many Hillary Clinton supporters still straddling the Obama-Clinton fence will regard as a gross insult to their intelligence and no doubt be the determining factor in convincing them to vote for Barack Obama.

Bearing in mind this and other neo-con strategy failures, it comes as no surprise that, according to an Aug. 17 Associated Press report, servicemembers have donated "more than six times as much to Sen. Barack Obama as to Sen. John McCain," as tabulated by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization tasked with examining information required by the Federal Election Commission for donations over $200.

This political shift would appear to herald a vastly under-reported but welcome reversal in the voting conscience of a military the far-right has taken for granted since the Nixon era.

Tech. Sgt. Ray Bowden
Incirlik Air Base, Turkey

[ProfessorGAC]

1. A Reason For Hope?

The Professor

[babylonsister]

3. I'm just hoping their votes will count, and I'm not confident at all about that. nt

[Karenina]

4. Nor should you be... nt

[Citizen Jane]

2. Thanks

It is good to hear from those that are sacrificing their lives and livelihoods thanks to this screwed up administration and even better to hear what is really going on with them. I am so sick of hearing about the fucking surge. Blech. I can totally relate to how pissed those on the ground are too!

:kick: